The Juniper Ridge mine offers the polar opposite of Sunstone mining, and that’s why the two mines compliment each other so well on a trip. While Sunstone mining involves digging, the greatest effort involves SEARCHING to locate the gems. When you see them, they’re already yours. At juniper ridge, there’s no searching – Opal is everywhere – the challenge is getting it out of the host basalt.

A sledge hammer, stout chisels and good work gloves
are essential for chasing seams of Opal through the hard basalt.

Our next adventure took us to beautiful parts of California, where the geology is different.
You can still see lots of basalt, but there’s also lots of granite.

This granite-covered hilllside was near our camping spot for the trip.

…and near where we dug this great, glassy Rose Quartz – and some wonderful Smoky crystals. I have faceted stones from this material. If you want some just contact me.

With all that granite, there had to be some feldspar dikes – and some Tourmaline –
One of my mining partners loosed this crystal – as big as my forearm!

California has some great “airplane not required” vistas, too.
This one was near another old Tourmaline dig we visited on that trip.

Northern Nevada

My first rock-hounding trip into Nevada definitely hooked me on that state. The terrain is
rugged and beautiful. The wild horses are a thrill. And, there are more different kinds of
rocks per field trip than you can believe.